Mr. António Manuel Leitão da Silva:

That is a very good question because we are facing an increasing number of situations. We are increasing dramatically the visibility of drug consumption in public spaces and that scenario is not something the law made in 2001 took into account. It is a political issue as well because most of the politicians do not want to change the law. It is not an outcry, but there is still strong pressure from some individuals from different political parties to revisit the law regarding the public visibility of drug consumption. Technically in the law the only thing considered a crime is the abandoning of syringes in public spaces. Other than that, nothing is a crime or even a misdemeanour. The path right now is to revisit the law. I do not know whether the political parties are going to be keen to change it or not. That is a different thing and has nothing to do with the police. It is true the visibility and the impact for insecurity, objective and subjective, is quite high.